Vigils Reading – All Saints

MERCY AND JUDGMENT
by Isaac of Stella6

“Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Even a righteous person cannot contend safely with the all-righteous God. It is silly to go out with ten thousand men to meet him who comes against you with twenty. The sensible thing is to send a messenger and ask for terms, before the other has advanced too far; to say, in a word, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no one living be justified.” Who, then, is this ambassador of peace? His name is mercy. For only by showing mercy can we hope to get it. Without mercy, righteousness is cruel and brings no one salvation. Only the merciful will have the joy, at the last day, of hearing the king say, “Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me meat… For that is as much as to say, “You showed mercy, and now you are obtaining it.” “Happy,” therefore, “are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

David, you remember, sings of “mercy and judgment” in that order, mercy first. For mercy must first be shown, and then sought at the judgment seat. The one who has shown no mercy will be sentenced without mercy too.

There are two kinds of mercy, one giving, one forgiving. “Give, and it shall be given unto you,” says the Lord, “forgive, and you shall be forgiven.” And that in proportion to what we ourselves do. “Forgive us, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” “With what measure you mete, it shall be meted unto you.”

In the first degree of giving mercy a person gives to others some of his own possessions. This is in accord with the Lord’s command, “Give alms, and all things shall be pure unto you.”

In the second degree one gives all one’s possessions. In that, one is like the apostles, who said, “Lo, we have left all and followed thee. What shall we have, then?”

In the third degree one gives oneself. The apostle Paul did that, who said, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.” No one has a greater love than this. One who possesses it gives himself to the Lord to the full extent of his capacity for giving.

The matter stands similarly with the other kind of mercy, the forgiving kind. You can remit some of the debts that other people owe you. Or you can remit them all. Or you can give back the debtor’s very self to him, as when an owner frees a slave.
We religious have renounced all property. We cannot practice either kind of mercy in material things. But there are other things that we can give: advice, our prayers, a good example and so forth. And we can forgive injuries.

6
Cistercian Studies , vol.2, no.1 1967. “Selections From the Sermons of Isaac of Sella” by Sr. Penelope. pp.262-263.